Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said that reportedly over 100 mercenaries of the Wagner Group have moved towards the Suwalki Gap, a strategic stretch of Polish territory lying between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Speaking at a press conference during his visit on Saturday to the Bumar-Labedy military equipment producing plant in Gliwice, southern Poland, Morawiecki said that for the last two years Poland has experienced a permanent hybrid attack on its eastern border with Belarus.

He added that this year alone there have been around 16,000 attempts to cross the border by illegal immigrants, „pushed to Poland” by Russian and Belarusian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Lukashenko, respectively.

„Now the situation becomes even more dangerous. We have information that over 100 mercenaries of the Wagner Group have moved towards the Suwalki Gap near Grodno in Belarus,” Morawiecki said.

According to him, „this is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.”

„They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilise Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants, and this creates additional risks,” Morawiecki argued.

In 2021, Poland experienced heightened migratory pressure on its border with Belarus with thousands of migrants trying to get into the country. Warsaw blamed the crisis on the Belarusian government, saying it was flying in Middle Eastern and African migrants on the false promise of easy access to the EU.

According to Polish officials, the hybrid attack from Belarus was co-prepared with the Russian secret services.

Commenting on the transfer of the Wagner mercenaries towards the Suwalki Gap, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told PAP, that Poland was prepared for provocations and attempts of hybrid actions by Russia and Belarus.

He said the situation was being monitored very carefully because „the risk is serious and very real.”

„Therefore we are strengthening our eastern border, we have considerably more troops there than we would have had if these two countries were not hostile,” Jablonski said.

In his opinion, the Wagner Group actions are aimed at arousing anxiety and increasing tensions in Poland especially before the parliamentary elections scheduled for this autumn.

„Russia takes advantage of such situations before elections in many countries, and this is certainly related,” Jablonski said. (PAP)

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